To the editor:
In his Super Tuesday column of May 25, 2015, Wyatt Smitherman describes the “pure diamond of normal marriage–marriage between a man and a woman, created for the right reasons.” He compares it to the “flawed stone” of “hybrid” partnerships (that is, same-sex partnerships), which, he says, “create caricatures of families based on conditional love and confused desires.”
I was surprised to find, in the pages of a respected and influential publication at my very own place of work, the notion that my queer family is a “caricature” of a family–and couched in the metaphors of purity vs. contamination so beloved by eugenics, no less.
This is not argument, but aggression, for which ignorance isn’t much of an excuse. It’s a shame that The Daily chose to enshrine it under the heading of serious debate.
Nina Schloesser Tárano
Lecturer, Creative Writing Program, English Department
Contact Nina Schloesser Tárano at nst ‘at’ stanford.edu